Rob Mulligan
Topic: Correlation of Mood and Exercise
Importance of Topic:
Exercise is an activity that requires physical effort and used to improve or sustain good health. Many people look to exercise for its physical effects as our world revolves around appearance and the stigma of being as healthy and fit as possible. Though, many may not know about the psychological effects of exercise which is one reason I want to further research and test the relationship between exercise and mood.
Moods are a temporary state of mind or emotion that everyone has and can vary greatly throughout the day depending on the time, place, or events happening around them. People are normally classified as simply being in a good or bad mood, but each of those main branches can be enlarged into more detailed emotions and descriptions. Moods can also come from psychological problems such as depression which brings a constant mood of tiredness and sadness.
One of the main reasons I want to investigate the relationship between exercise and mood is to see if there could be, not only physical, but psychological benefits for people, especially teenagers as their brains continue to develop leading to a tough time in life for many. This research is important because it gives the opportunity to discover the possibility of another way to increase positive moods within teens who may be stressed or tired. Along with this the possibility of finding another way to combat depression within teenagers as it becomes more common.
It is also very important to question what part of exercise brings the change in mood as it could be the physical act of working out stimulating your blood flow and body or the idea of improving your body and health. I also chose this topic because I enjoy working out and have experienced the effects it brings on me both physically and mentally. I want to see and hear how other people are affected by it, specifically their mood. I can then deduce various tactics that could help people have better days or to find the best time to interact with people. Hopefully, this will also be able to further support the importance of exercise and how it can help solve many different problems and could lead to improving people’s moods and overall more positive lives.
Literature review:
Exercise is always attributed with bringing physical changes such as weight loss, muscle growth, or appearance changes, but the psychological aspects of exercise are commonly glossed over especially the way it can change a person’s mood. One of the key questions though is how to measure mood as it can be a very subjective thing that can is difficult to observe. No one tool or method can work for all ways to measure mood and must vary to the nature of the experiment (Brown & Astell, 2012). Brown and Astell explain how mood has been conceptualized and used differently for various methods of measurement. They use and encourage the use of the self-reporting method to allow the participants to accurately describe what they believe to feel and quantifying that into numerical data to allow measurements to be taken. Their results showed Moods can be conceptually differentiated from the related psychological concepts of emotion, well-being, quality of life, and depression (Brown & Astell, 2012).
Lane and Lovejoy use the Profile of Mood States, a mood test that attaches different emotions and feelings with numerical values, to let participants self-record their score while also allowing the categorization and description of mood to be defined. They also explain that brevity was an important consideration as mood was assessed shortly before and after an exercise class. (Lane & Lovejoy, 1999) as the length of the test is relatively short and straight to the point allowing for quick and accurate information which becomes very important when dealing with a large group of participants.
The importance of looking out for different variables was also highlighted in the research as many different things can also affect the change in mood experienced by a person while exercising. For Brown and Astell it was the age as they used an older group of participants. Lane and Lovejoy looked at those with a pre-depressed mood and divided up the groups as so. The implications of pre-existing mood disorders such as depression must be taken into account and they showed that event those with depression showed change in mood after exercising displaying the power of exercise. Results showed that anger, confusion , fatigue, tension, and vigor reduced significantly supporting exercises reduced negative mood (Lane & Lovejoy, 1999).
All of the research also points to making sure to control as many variables as possible such as the time of day and type of music listened to (Lane & Lovejoy, 1999), because each one can individually lead to a change in mood. Some people may naturally have different times of the day they are in a generally bad or good mood which can cause problems with the data. Music can also bring different moods to people depending on the genre or artist they hear meaning a specific genre should be used or no music at all. Controlling what people do before they come to workout for the experiment is another factor but cannot be controlled therefore must be added into the equation. People coming from school or work could already be in a certain mood due to events that happened there and, depending on the magnitude of the events effects on their mood, could be carried into and throughout the exercise.
Exercise can be categorized in many different ways and many different activities can be referred to as exercise causing a need for a single, specific type of activity to be used along with a consistent program to ensure everyone exerts similar amounts of effort and is required to do certain amounts of work. Different levels of exercise can affect mood differently. Moderate exercise can be seen bringing a temporary improvement of mood while intense exercise can actually worsen the mood had prior to exercising (Peluso & Guerra de Andrade, 2004). This research article explains how exercise that is too intense can actually worsen someone’s mood showing the consistent correlation of exercise and mood but the negative effects it can bring to mood. Esurance of consistent exertion needed from each participant is very important as they showed how different levels of intensity can cause varying effects of mood.
The people themselves also seem to play a big role in the change in mood experienced by people after exercising. Lane & Jarrett(2004) illustrate how a person’s ability to regulate their mood states needs to also be looked at. Some people may be more susceptible to mood changes meaning they can switch moods easier than other people which can complicate the results. They showed this through examining 34 adults with an age around 69 years old and measured their mood changes along with attempting to find out if golf was a good way to encourage activity for older adults. They found that their mood scores decreased after play as their moods became more negative. This shows how different forms of exercise can produce varying effects on those partaking in it along with the important fact that people’s moods can be more or less sensitive than others causing a need for a group of similar participants.
Gender also came up as a variable that could affect if there was a change in mood of people after exercise. Rocheleau, Webster, Bryan, and Frazier (2004) researched the relationship between exercise and mood changes with gender. They did so by having 135 participants, of which 64 were females, take part in either weight training or cardiovascular exercise. Their results showed an increased improvement in mood compared to men showing that there may be a biological difference between the way exercise can affect males and females mood’s. This then raises the question of why that is and would require further research and experimentation to confirm and identify the reason.
This research provided a lot of information but focused mainly on testing adults. There is a gap in information about the effects of exercise on the moods of teenagers who may react differently as their physical capabilities could be higher than adults and still have a developing brain. This leaves an opportunity for me to further research the effects of exercise on mood in teenagers and hopefully will be able to find information that can support the importance of exercise in teens for not just physical benefits but also psychological.